After adding an ammeter, voltage gauge and batt-mon I had an observation that was plain to see but unexpected. The ST1300 is designed to have more of an electrical load then just the basic engine and a few LED lights.
Over the last few months I have been turning off my HID headlights during the day and instead running the LED driving lights. I figured it saves wear -n tear on the bulbs/ballast and the LED driving lights just plain show up more conspicuously. Probably because they don't have the vertical cut-off like the headlights do, but they are not blindingly bright during the day like running my hi-beams would be.
But after installing the meters I found that my voltage was bouncing around and the amperage going back into the battery was not settling in like it should be. After 10~15 minutes the battery had sufficient time to re-charge after starting the bike. Amperage going into the battery should be below the 1 amp range. Mine was bouncing up to 4.
I hope I didn't over-charge the battery and boil it a bit, but I might have. Oh well, too late now.
So FYI.. if reducing the load on your ST1300 electric system, keep an eye on the voltage. You don't necessarily need an ammeter, you can do it with just a volt-meter. Establish a base-line and make sure you aren't going over it after reducing the load.
More then you probably wanted to know...
T
PS Sometimes you just can't find a happy medium. Wired to my headlights to be on all the time is a pair of HID's as fog/cornering lights. So when I have my lights on now I am really running two pair. If I sit at a traffic light for a moment... I see the batt-mon coming on green, meaning my battery charge is good but voltage has dropped to where the system is not charging the battery. Amperage has dropped to 0 (relative to battery, it won't read negative) and the voltage drops a bit. But soon as off-idle everything is fine, the battery is just acting as a buffer.
Over the last few months I have been turning off my HID headlights during the day and instead running the LED driving lights. I figured it saves wear -n tear on the bulbs/ballast and the LED driving lights just plain show up more conspicuously. Probably because they don't have the vertical cut-off like the headlights do, but they are not blindingly bright during the day like running my hi-beams would be.
But after installing the meters I found that my voltage was bouncing around and the amperage going back into the battery was not settling in like it should be. After 10~15 minutes the battery had sufficient time to re-charge after starting the bike. Amperage going into the battery should be below the 1 amp range. Mine was bouncing up to 4.
I hope I didn't over-charge the battery and boil it a bit, but I might have. Oh well, too late now.
So FYI.. if reducing the load on your ST1300 electric system, keep an eye on the voltage. You don't necessarily need an ammeter, you can do it with just a volt-meter. Establish a base-line and make sure you aren't going over it after reducing the load.
More then you probably wanted to know...
T
PS Sometimes you just can't find a happy medium. Wired to my headlights to be on all the time is a pair of HID's as fog/cornering lights. So when I have my lights on now I am really running two pair. If I sit at a traffic light for a moment... I see the batt-mon coming on green, meaning my battery charge is good but voltage has dropped to where the system is not charging the battery. Amperage has dropped to 0 (relative to battery, it won't read negative) and the voltage drops a bit. But soon as off-idle everything is fine, the battery is just acting as a buffer.
